My husband spent three hours watering plants and the lawn and then we had 24 hours of rain! I thanked him and gave him credit as the rainmaker. He didn’t think it was funny. Our day time temprature fell below 90 degrees and we can open our window at night again. Ahh… very welcome relief! On those hot humid days I had to coax our dog to go outside and we did all the big walks in the morning. It was just too hot.

We feel sad with the continuing smears on Penn State and Joe Paterno. He reported it to his superiors and did his job, yet he was fired in disgrace. He died of lung cancer, why can’t they let him rest in peace… and go after those he reported it to? Then the powers that be removed his bronze statue. Now the NCAA has rewritten history by voiding many of JoPa’s wins to annihilate his distinction as the winningest coach in college football. Does anyone really believe we can change what happened to anyone by saying it didn’t happen?? Enough is enough.

I read a real pager turner last week, Caught by Harlan Coban. Wow! my husabnd is reading it now and told me he probably won’t be able to sleep until he finshes it! A surprise twist at the end which I always admire. Very few books ever surprise me…and he certainly did in Caught!

This week I read Shadow Tag by Louise Erdich, it is the book chosen by my book club for August. It is a haunting fast paced story of a troubled marriage told with raw honesty. An American Indian couple who vowed to stop drinking and then kept drinking…”A fearless portrayal of a marriage in free fall.” -Voque

Last week we went to see the new Spiderman movie and it was surprisingly good. Last Saturday we went to see the new Batman movie. It was very long but well done, though not as interesting as Spiderman to us.

I was notified this evening that a piece I wrote yesterday about writer’s etiquette will be included in an upcoming Working Writer Newletter. I am honored and a bit thrilled. The name of the artilce is Good Manners are Never out of Style.

We’re in the midst of a heat wave in Pennsylvania. Temps have been in the 90’s for several days with matching humidity. Makes me very thankful to have a c. We’re staying inside as much as possible.

Life sometimes feels like a rollercoaster. The ups and downs can come at a person ferociously. I must have sounded like a complainer when I expressed my reigning negativism today to a writing acquaintance. He suggested, “Use this time to contemplate your next move and make some lemonade from the lemons that life has been throwing your way.” Good advice.

Another friend forwarded a special email that was packed full of nuggets about de-stressing. It started with a glass of water filled to the half way point. Was it half full or half empty? Turns out, it doesn’t matter…its the weight of the glass. How heavy is it? And the weight depends on how long we hold it. The longer we hold onto the glass is compared to holding onto our burdens, they become heavier the longer we hold them… if we don’t lighten up, we eventually won’t be able to carry on. I hope you remember the image of the half glass of water and think about this. It’s certainly been helpful to me.

This afternoon I finished reading The Rebel Wife by Taylor M. Polites. It is his first novel, an exciting and educational story, set in the Reconctruciton Era of the deep south after the Civil War. I met Taylor when I was at Wilkes Universtiy. He’s a humble and charming southern gentleman. He received his MFA last year from Wilkes and will join the Low Resiency Creative Writing staff in January. I highly recommend his book and incidentally so does O Magazine!

If anyone has an interest in good classical music with a sense of humor, the following you tube video is for you, they have added an old fashioned typewriter to the orchestra. It is fun to wactch these serious musicians make music with smiles on their faces. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch popup?v=G4nXOXrn-wo&sns=em

Odd title for a blog. I wonder where the term deadlines origingated? Did they kill writers who were late??I’m happy to be starting my second course in the Wilkes Low Residency Creative Writing Masters Program this month. It is fun to be activley learning again. The deadlines are a bit less fun but necessary.

Professionally this is an exciting month for me. A ‘Writer’s Interview’ is published in July’s online www.WritingRaw.com. Carol Smallwood interviewed me several weeks ago.

I am still reeling from the Time magazine cover a couple weeks ago, featuring dozens of illegal immigrants, blatantly defying the laws the U.S. Immigration laws by declaring, ’We are Americans.’ Even though they are illegally in the country, perhaps through no fault of their own. I am not by nature legalistic but don’t we have to draw a line at some point? I know of no other country in the world where such obnoxious defiance of it’s national laws would be tolerated. The politcian’s pandering on the issue seems way too obvious and yet it is barely, actually not even, mentioned by the main stream media.

I have read two books this week: A young adult novel Three Rivers Rising by Jamie Richards about the Johnstown flood of 1889. It was engrossing, the author gave credit as one of her main sources to David McCullough’s The Johnstown Flood which eclipses everything else written about the flood. He is the master!

Crackpot by Sara Pritchard, who is a writing instructors at Wilkes Creative Writing M. A. program. It is a novel written in memoir style. Packed full of nuances that will take baby boomers on a nostalgic ride back to the America we grew up in. My favorite line fromthe book was when the protagonist, age six and asked her father about a photo of Atlas holding the world with his hands high above his head…”What is he standing on if he’s holding the world?”

Tomorrow my dad will have surgery to determine the stage and type of lung cancer he has. So hard to realize this is happening. He has always been my rock. Now we all must be strong for him. There will probably be at least fifteen family members in the waiting room…